UL Safer World Mission Goes Virtual

UL was founded as Underwriters’ Electrical Bureau over 120 years ago to test and certify the safety of products that connected people to a strange and invisible new power source. Formally known as Underwriters Laboratories, UL is now evolving that mission for the drivers of new online, virtual experiences.

“We’ve added security to our definition of safety, and thereby bringing elements of interoperability, reliability and privacy to our mission,” said Sajeev Jesudas, the company’s president of UL Consumer.

The company started changing more than a decade ago, first with a move into testing interoperability of wireless products. It acquired key players to build a credible offering to manufacturers, which slowly evolved into a broader capability to do intrusion and vulnerability testing for credit cards/chip and pin.

It’s now the global leader in validating transaction security, and runs a division offering its services (UL Transaction Security). More than 50% of all physical payment terminals in retail are UL approved.

The longer-term opportunity is for certification benchmarks.

“Validation affirms performance claims, and there is a clear need for it in virtual products,” said Bron. “Certification confirms a product meets a market-accepted standard, and results in a pass or fail.”

The company just published its first standard for networked products, called UL 2900, which defines security criteria for medical and industrial control systems and IT products.

“2900 also looks at processes, so it defines a minimum standard for, say, the time it takes to deploy a fix in response to a service interruption,” Bron said.

“There’s a shortage of standards in the virtual world,” said Jesudas. “We recently bought a Finnish company called Futuremark, which does benchmarking on hardware and software, and we’re looking to extend it to the app world.”

“We’re looking to apply the UL methodology and brand to a new world of products,” he continued. “Same mission, just a different world.”

“They are starting to overlap,” added Bron, noting that wearables and the Internet of Things blur the line between what’s physical and virtual, and that thermostats and home automation controllers perform at the edge of the Internet.

“Our mission isn’t just to extend our philosophy, but to make those interactions safer and more secure.”